Exsanguination Read online

  “But not a virgin?”

  “Alas, no. But still, he loves me.”

  “Well, if it’s ok with Phillip and Vanessa, I’d like to hang out for a while so you have a pleasant night.”

  “And now that I know that the Countess does not want my head, I’ll hide out less and get out more.”

  Nikki laughed.

  Moments later, she saw Beth approaching, her, looking desperate. When she reached Nikki, she threw her arms around her. “I thought you’d left me,” she whimpered.

  Nikki looked at Vanessa in alarm.

  “It appears your hypnosis skills require some additional work. I can take care of it for you.”

  “Wait,” Nikki shook her head.

  Vanessa frowned and Nikki put her arm around Beth’s shoulders. “Why don’t you tell me all about yourself, Beth?” she guided the girl off to one side of the club and sat down next to her at a table.

  Vanessa sighed, shook her head, and followed them, leaving Phillip to fend for himself. He watched as she joined the two in conversation. In short order, the three were smiling and chatting. Wandering over to the bar, he sat down. It was a strange world he lived in now, he thought as he watched a young woman cut her forearm with a razor blade and the man sitting next to her fasten his mouth on the wound. These, he mused, were the people that Vanessa called posers. The woman sighed as if experiencing some unique pleasure and, he thought, maybe she was. Who was he to judge what might be going on in her mind? That said, most of them would never experience the pleasures of the real thing. Those who did wouldn’t be permitted to retain any memory of the person who gave them such pleasure. Anyone entering one of the back rooms and seeing a true vampire at work would just assume that it was a poser in action. He found it to be a well-functioning, trouble-free ecosystem.

  He knew that there were probably a wide variety of diseases that could be transmitted in this fashion. Poke a hole and drink the result out of a shot glass would be one thing, he thought, but sucking it directly into your mouth? Guess the posers hadn’t gotten the memo.

  “Enjoying the show?” he heard Vanessa’s voice over his shoulder.

  “Hmm?” he shook his head. “I was lost in thought. Did you get the issue with the little girl taken care of?”

  She nodded. “All memory of Nikki wiped out.”

  As he drove back toward the house, he looked in the rearview mirror. Nikki was smiling, eyes closed. All, it seemed, was well with the world.

  X

  Late the next day, the big screen TV, gaming console, and sound system were installed in what Vanessa referred to as the morning room. In short order, the whole thing was connected up.

  When the two installers had finished up and left, Vanessa moved a large, stuffed sofa into position in front of the screen and Nikki popped Underworld into the Blu-ray player. The three snuggled up together as the movie started.

  “Nice outfit,” Vanessa glanced at Nikki with a wink and a grin. She snorted and chuckled several times during the show, garnering dirty looks from Nikki. In one scene, Nikki suggested that she need a couple of guns to go with her outfit.

  The movie finished and Phillip piped up. “Lights please?”

  “So what was all the snickering about?” Nikki looked at Vanessa.

  “Let me start by saying that it was very entertaining. A good deal of killing and all of that but there are so many things I could have and would have done if I was transported into those situations. The old, big fellow was impressive but, against me, he would have had the worst of it in short order. Overall, Nikki, a good choice and I enjoyed it immensely.”

  “Fair enough,” Nikki responded and then frowned. “With your age, would you be considered an elder?”

  “That’s the first time I’ve heard the term,” Vanessa shrugged and nodded toward the television.

  “Let’s order pizza before they close,” Phillip suggested.

  “Great idea because I have another really good one!”

  “Vampires?”

  “Uh uh,” Nikki responded. “A special Frankenstein movie.”

  Vanessa rolled her eyes and groaned.

  “We only have a few movies but I’ve ordered a buttload from Amazon. They should be here pretty quickly.

  An hour later, sitting amidst empty pizza boxes, Phillip watched as Nikki inserted the next movie. He wondered how Vanessa would react to it. She started laughing early into the show and couldn’t stop. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Finally, it was over.

  Just as Vanessa began to regain control of herself, Phillip leaned toward her.

  “Frau Blucher!”

  It totally set her off again.

  “Stop it!” she shook her head as she laughed and lightly punched his arm. “That was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced. I have never and I mean never laughed that hard in my life!” she wiped her eyes.

  “Can we go to that clothing store again? I want to get some things that are a bit more comfortable and I want to do it before mom cuts off my card.”

  “Sure, we can do that,” Vanessa grinned, “but we’ll need to hurry before they close up for the night.”

  It turned out that the owner was reluctant to close the store as long as Nikki kept piling clothing up at the cash register but her look went sour when her card was declined.

  “Phil! My card is dead!”

  With a long-suffering sigh, he placed his own credit card on the counter and it went through easily much to the relief of the proprietor. Once everything was stowed, Vanessa got into the driver’s seat and started the Range Rover. Phillip, after a fashion, wore out the Frau Blucher line. Once out of London proper, Vanessa turned off the headlights with a chuckle, knowing it would drive Phillip up the wall. As they made the turn into the long drive, Vanessa frowned and stopped.

  “What are you doing?” Phillip frowned.

  “It appears we have visitors, darling. There’s a van outside the front door. I think our installers have returned.”

  He took out his phone. “I’ll call the police.”

  “Uh uh,” she smiled, “I can deal with this.”

  A couple of hundred yards out, she stopped the car and got out. “Stay put.”

  With the aid of a flashlight, the two would be burglars were working on the lock to the front door.

  Nikki could see clearly what Phillip could not, complete darkness being no problem for her now.

  Vanessa began running toward the two hapless men. Nikki watched as her form blurred and she picked up speed.

  “Oh.My.God!” she exclaimed in a whisper. Vanessa had morphed into a very large wolf – a dire wolf. She stopped a couple of yards from the door and snarled. The men turned to see glowing red eyes and wicked teeth as Vanessa growled at them. Then she lunged, quickly tearing the throat from the larger of the two men. The second started to run for the van but she was on him quickly.

  “Phil! Turn on the lights!” Nikki said.

  As he did so, he saw a wolf loping toward the Range Rover. Shocked, he watched as the form became hazy and then saw Vanessa approaching casually on foot, blood on her face. She bent over a few times to collect her discarded clothing.

  “Phillip, darling, please hand me your bottle of water.”

  His hand shook as he did so and Vanessa rinsed the blood off of her face. Nikki watched, her eyes wide with excitement.

  “Did I get it all?”

  She nodded. “God! Can I do that?”

  “You can but I’ll have to teach you how,” she nodded to Nikki and then turned to Phillip. “Now you can dial nine nine nine if you’d like,” she got back into the driver’s seat and proceeded down the drive.

  He’d had, of course, seen blood on her mouth before but had not actually witnessed any killings. He found himself less disturbed than he thought he would be.

  “Can you turn into a bat too?” he inquired as he dialled the phone.

  Vanessa chuckled. “It’s unpleasant and rather frightening. I don’t talk about it.,” she
stopped the car next to the van and reached out for Phillip’s phone, something for which he was very grateful. Climbing out of the car, she began speaking.

  “Yes, this is Lady Vanessa Leyland-Smythe and I have a terrible situation here at my home! There appear to be two dead people at the front of my house. It’s just horrid! There’s blood everywhere!” she did her best to sound completely distraught. “Please, send someone immediately! I don’t know what to do!” There was a pause. “Stay where I am? Yes, of course! Disturb nothing? I wouldn’t go near them. It’s absolutely awful! Please hurry!” her face relaxed as she casually returned Phillip’s phone.

  “You should be nominated for an Oscar,” Nikki chirped.

  To Phillip, the whole scene seemed surreal. He stood looking at the man in front of the door. His eyes were wide, unmoving, his throat had been torn out all the way to the spine. A pool of blood spread out in a wide puddle. Glancing down at the man next to the van, he found himself feeling numb somehow.

  Almost half an hour later, the characteristic ‘wee wah’ of sirens approached. Three police cars were speeding down the drive. They came up short, grinding gravel with abrupt braking.

  Vanessa watched, feigning trembling, as the constables swarmed the scene, one of whom covered his mouth as his stomach churned.

  “And you say you were returnin’ from London?”

  “That’s right, Constable . . .”

  “Detective Chief Inspector,” he corrected her.

  “Of course. I’m sorry. I’m just completely devastated by this whole thing,” she covered her face and shook her head theatrically.

  “I understand, mum.”

  “I mean how could such a thing happen like this? These were the two men who installed my television today.”

  “We’ll find out, mum, but right now it looks like an animal attack. A pack of dogs maybe.”

  “Well, I don’t have any dogs, Inspector. Oh, this is just awful!” she played the completely rattled female to a fault.

  “There, there,” he patted her shoulder sympathetically. “Why don’t we get the three of you inside and away from all this? I can take a report while more of my men come out to clean this all up.”

  Vanessa stared directly into his eyes. “Oh, Inspector, you are a treasure – a wonderful help.”

  “Thank you, mum. I wish you didn’t have to go through such a horrible experience.”

  Phillip caught himself before he could chuckle. She’d just charmed the hell out of this cop, he thought.

  Inside, the detective had Vanessa reiterate her story. As she did so, she slid an ashtray across the table to the man.

  “Smoke if you like,” she nodded.

  “How . . . ?”

  She tapped the side of her nose. “Acute sense of smell. It’s fine; it doesn’t bother me at all.”

  He looked grateful as he took a cigarette case and lighter from his coat pocket and lit one up.

  “Thank you, mum,” he finished his notes and closed his pad. Standing up, he smiled slightly.

  “That’s all I need, mum,” he smiled at her. “It may take an hour or two but it will be as if none of this ever happened.”

  “Oh, Inspector,” she looked at him softly, “where would we be without men such as yourself to protect us?”

  He reddened slightly. “It’s nothing, mum. I’m just glad none of you were hurt and that we could get here when we did and, may I say, you have a beautiful home.”

  As the front door closed, Nikki grinned. “Another movie?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “No, not while they’re still milling about out there. We’ll drink wine and bask in front of the fire in the drawing room.”

  As they sat on the sofa, Nikki turned to Phillip. “Are you ok?”

  “Well, let’s just say I’m a bit stressed.”

  “I know,” Nikki hugged him. “I think it may bother you more than it does me.”

  “Was it really necessary to kill them, Vanessa?” Phillip asked, looking pained.

  “In my judgement, yes. I eliminated the threat in such a way that the authorities are happy. Anything that might cause scrutiny of us threatens our security. That’s our line and, when I say ‘our line’, I speak for all vampires,” she kissed his cheek. “When you’ve been turned, you’ll completely get it. Right now you tend to look at things from a human standpoint and that’s not at all your fault. When you’re a vampire, you’ll find your point of view will become radically altered. Let’s say I had turned you a couple of weeks ago. You would have been out of the Range Rover and running at my side this evening, looking forward to the kill.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m kinda doubting that.”

  “Trust me,” she chuckled.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you something that popped into my head yesterday.”

  “Really? What’s that?”

  “Where’s your coffin or were you using your sarcophagus?”

  Nikki’s ears perked up. “Sarcophagus?”

  “Phillip . . .” Vanessa sighed.

  “Sorry.”

  She turned to Nikki. “Those memories you now have. Some of them very old. Do you have any of Egypt?”

  Nikki nodded. “I just realized, I’m seeing things through your eyes!”

  “Yes, and while there’s no need to share details with your brother, I was a ruler and a sarcophagus was made for me, along with a tomb.”

  “Oooh! Can I see?”

  Minutes later the three were on the third floor in the unused bedroom.

  “God! That’s beautiful and it looks just like you!” Nikki opened it before either Vanessa or Phillip realized what she’d done.

  “Ewww! Who is that?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “I haven’t the slightest idea but she was a slave, dead close to five thousand years now,” she eased the lid shut. “I really should bury her out behind the house where the graveyard is.”

  Recovering from his amazement, Phillip took a deep breath but, before he could speak, Vanessa continued.

  “Might as well go to the next bedroom. It’s where I keep my treasure.”

  “Treasure?” Nikki asked.

  Vanessa nodded as she opened the door to the next room. Both Phillip and Nikki gasped in shock and Vanessa laughed softly.

  “Believe it or not, the street value of this collection is virtually nil. It’s too exotic to be fenced and if word got out of its existence, the international police and Egyptian antiquities people would be crawling all over this house.

  Phillip and Nikki walked around the room. It was a tomb raider’s delight. Gold was everywhere – it was a treasure trove.

  “Are those what I think they are?” Phillip eyed the small vases suspiciously.

  “Canopic jars,” Vanessa nodded. “It was early days of mummification and they were just beginning to perfect the process. They contain the internal organs of the woman who is in my sarcophagus.”

  “Ewww!” Nikki exclaimed as her lip curled in disgust.

  “So, since your sarcophagus would be too crowded, where is your coffin?”

  “What? Oh,” she responded lightly, “down in the wine cellar.”

  “Can I see it?”

  “No, you can’t,” she laughed lightly. “I’m joking, Phillip. There’s no coffin.”

  “Really? I thought you were just sleeping in bed because of me. I figured you didn’t have a queen-sized coffin that would accommodate both of us.”

  “Interesting mental image,” she chuckled. “I believe that the whole coffin thing came from a time when superstitious villagers would occasionally dig up their dead and stake them to ensure that they wouldn’t return from the grave. That, in turn, was taken up in literature and oral tradition,” she shook her head. “None of us sleep or lay about in coffins, my dear.”

  “Oh,” he felt a bit disappointed.

  “Besides, what if one became uncomfortable sleeping on one’s back and tried to turn over?”

  Phillip sighed. “Not surprisingly, that never
occurred to me.”

  “To say nothing of the poor vampire who happened to be a claustrophobe.”

  He frowned. “That’s possible?”

  “Just because you become a vampire doesn’t mean you leave all your foibles and oddities behind. That said, most tend to develop new ones.”

  They returned to the drawing room and Vanessa poured drinks.

  “I want my own human,” Nikki pouted.

  Her brother looked at her in amazement. “Nikki, you shouldn’t treat a person as if they’re a pet!”

  Nikki lifted her nose in the air. “Well, Vanessa has you!”

  “I am not Vanessa’s human!”

  Vanessa smiled slightly. “Of course you are, darling.”

  As his jaw dropped, she crooked her finger at him. When he was close enough, she whispered in his ear.

  His face lit up and he looked both shocked and delighted. “You do?”

  She nodded and he threw his arms around her. She could hear his heart pounding rapidly.

  After a bit, Phillip pulled back. “You’ve made me a very happy man, sweetheart.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, is it?” Nikki grinned.

  Phillip ignored her and looked at Vanessa. “Can I ask a favour?”

  “Of course,” she smiled.

  “Can we possibly have a little less blood and gore in the future?”

  “I can’t guarantee anything but I’ll tell you that, what happened outside is a rare occurrence.”

  “Good, because it really does bother me.”

  Vanessa nodded. “Just remember, I’m not like you. My animal instincts run much more closely to the surface than yours do and sometimes they burst through their restraints. You remember my reaction to Nikki when she challenged me?”

  “That was a sight that is burned into my memory. It was anything but forgettable.”

  “I may try your patience at times.”

  “I’m not worried.”

  “You may find me quite difficult.”

  “I’ll deal with it,” he smiled. He was on top of the world. She’d told him that she loved him.

  Nikki’s mobile buzzed and she picked it up and read the message with a giggle.